Study: Retailers' payments programs across channels by no means seamless

Omnichannel may be a big industry buzzword, but retailers are still figuring out how to apply it to payments.



According to a new survey of nearly 100 global retailers by PCM Research and electronic payment and banking solution provider ACI Worldwide, “Omnichannel Payments for Merchants: Myth or Reality?” only 21% of respondents have competed an omnichannel payments program.



This figure includes primarily large grocery and department store operators. Forty-six percent of respondents have no plans for an omnichannel payments program within the next 12 months.



In addition, 50% of respondents said their organization is in the “early” or “innovator” stage omnichannel payments innovation, while the other 50% s categorized themselves as ‘technology followers.’ The top two reasons for not moving faster into an omnichannel retailing environment were finding the business case and business sponsorship for the necessary funding for implementation.



Asked whether they have a common set of fraud prevention capabilities across all channels, a slight majority of respondents (53%) said no, 39% yes and 8% were unsure. Forty-two percent of respondents said they have no common set of payment security capabilities across all channels today, 9% were unsure and 49% have these capabilities.



The survey also shows that the preferred implementation strategy for omnichannel payments has moved from an in-house (on-premise) model to a hosted SaaS model. Results show that increased payments complexity and PCI compliance are likely to be the biggest drivers for this move in delivery/consumption model. Other notable findings include that 53% of respondents are interested in mobile POS and wallet technologies.



“The path to omnichannel payments is complex and can seem daunting, and merchants are at a crossroads with the number of technology options,” said Andrew Quartermaine, head of merchant retail EMEA, ACI Worldwide. However, those that embrace these types of disruptive opportunities to serve today’s anytime, anywhere consumers will come out ahead. A frictionless payment experience for the consumer in any channel should be the goal of retailers and merchants.”